Background and objectives: Student-run free clinics (SRFCs) have been proposed as one educational strategy to increase medical students' interest in primary care careers. We sought to overcome gaps in the literature by investigating the effect of opening an SRFC at different institutions on institution-level match rates into family medicine, the largest source of primary care physicians in the United States.
Methods: We connected a list of SRFCs from primary care clerkship directors and the Society of Student-Run Free Clinics with a database of institution-level match rates into family medicine from 2000 to 2018. Using regression discontinuity analysis, we assessed whether opening an SRFC would increase family medicine match rates.
Results: Across a sample of 58 medical schools in the United States, we found that SRFCs did not significantly change the number (P=.44) or percentage of medical graduates (P=.42) entering family medicine residency. We also found no significant effects of SRFCs on the number of students entering family medicine in different contexts, including public/private institutions (P=.47), geographic areas (P=.26), departmental administrative structures (P=.69), and institutions with higher historical rates of producing graduates entering family medicine (P=.22).
Conclusions: Though SRFCs may potentially support other aspects of undergraduate medical training, they should not be used as a singular strategy for addressing shortages in the primary care workforce in the United States. Further educational research should examine multipronged strategies to increase the supply of early-career primary care physicians in the United States.
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